A/N: Yes, I've changed this again, so sorry. Maybe that was the last time. I hope so.
About the prologue: I probably should have clarified that Seth was around 16 then. Spencer was 10 and yes, I know he admitted his mom when he was 18. That doesn't mean she coudln't have been to a clinique before, for a short while. Let's assume she was out shortly after that meeting and then everything happened like it did in canon.
Part 2: The visit at the prison
"Will you give it a rest! I know what I'm doing!"
"If that were the case then we would not be stuck here. Look, Morgan, all I'm saying is that it would have been better…"
"What do you know about driving anyway? Just cause you've read every book abou…"
"Hey! It's too late now anyways, you guys," Elle pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to ignore the growing headache she was developing.
The plane had touched down early but they only arrived at the Kansas State Prison around noon after being stuck in traffic for almost an hour (due to some unfortunate decisions made by some of them).
Morgan's mood was respectively bad and the fact that Reid wouldn't stop discussing better routes for the way back didn't help much.
Elle was quick to announce their arrival at the service desk, hoping to get out of range should Morgan blow up.
Neither of them was especially enthusiastic about the case, Morgan for said reasons, Elle because of her general hatred for cases involving sexual assault and Reid because he was stuck with both of their bad vibes.
About fifteen minutes later, they were led to an empty interviewing room that had no windows but a large mirror wall on one side.
"Are you going to ask him the questions?" Reid asked Morgan as he unpacked the needed case files and arranged them on the table.
Morgan nodded, "Sure. Elle can help me. Will you make sure that the rest of the people on our list are available so we can talk to them after? We´ll start with longtime cellmates and move on to the guards this afternoon."
"Sounds good," Reid agreed as he put his satchel back on and turned towards the door: "Good luck, you two."
Elle smiled briefly at him, already taking her seat at the table. Morgan hesitated, stopping Reid before he left the room:
"Hey, Reid."
The young doctor turned around, his eyebrows raised, "Hmm?"
Morgan offered him a somewhat sheepish smile, rubbing his neck, "Sorry about before… I didn't mean to cut into you like that."
Reid returned the smile without hesitance, glad that Morgan was willing to forget about the rather unpleasant morning.
"Don't worry about it," he shrugged, and added before he could stop himself, "I can imagine how infuriating it must be when someone else is always right."
Morgan scoffed at that comment, rolling his eyes in mock annoyance, "I didn't say you were, Reid."
"We'll see about that on the way back," Reid grinned over his shoulder as he opened the door.
Then he turned around - and almost jumped out of his skin when he suddenly found himself faced with no other than Seth Gecko. Seemingly appearing out of thin air, he was filling out the door frame, barely an inch between them. The older Gecko brother looked much like in his mug shot except maybe even more intimidating. Reid couldn't help but stare as the man made to brush past him, surprised that he was even taller than him.
Their eyes met fleetingly, Gecko's cold, dark ones about to pass him when he hesitated unexpectedly, something flashing across his face. His eyes widened slightly as he fixated Reid, turning towards him.
Startled, Reid recoiled, only then able to shake his stupor and react. A second later a guard he hadn't noticed before yanked Gecko back into place by the chains around his wrists, breaking the moment.
Reid gulped, hoping that his lapse hadn't been visible on his face as he mumbled an apology and then stepped aside to let them pass, trying to calm himself. He really needed to start being more attentive to the world around him –that couldn't hurt in their line of work…
He counted to three in his head, then looked up again, shocked to find Seth Gecko's black eyes had remained on him as he walked past, fixating him before he turned around and walked towards the table wordlessly. Reid stood there frozen, his heart rate just slowly recovering from shock.
'What was that just now?'
He stood there for another few seconds trying to make sense of why the prisoner had reacted the way he did, coming up blank.
It wasn't until the man sat opposite of Elle and Morgan with his hands chained to the table that Reid remembered he had things to do. He was halfway down the corridor when suddenly he changed his mind.
Quickly, he turned around and walked straight into the room opposite the mirror wall. He greeted the man watching the monitors, then looked into the interrogation room.
His actual task would have to wait for the moment, for now he wanted to see how the interview would go. He watched as Morgan and Elle introduced themselves and got started.
"Mr. Gecko," Morgan began, sorting through the file in front of him, "I take it you know why we are here."
Gecko had seemingly gotten over his little lapse quickly; he didn't look towards the door again, instead all focused on the FBI agents interviewing him now. He smiled wryly, leaning back confidently in his chair as he mustered both agents; he didn't seem nervous in the least. But then, even if he was guilty he had no reason to: He was already in jail.
"Of course," he replied smoothly, "You´re here about my baby brother, right?"
It was a little irritating to hear the homicidal maniac from their pictures referred to that way and that reflected on Morgan's face, but he nodded anyway, "We are investigating against Richard Gecko in connection to thirteen murders and four rapes over the past eight years. We were hoping you could help us with that."
"Were you now?" Gecko drawled, one corner of his mouth pulled up ironically while his eyes remained cold as ice. He didn't continue but just looked at them with slight bemusement.
Reid thought of the videos and photos he had seen of Seth Gecko robbing stores and banks, coldly pressing his gun against the heads of countless innocent people without batting so much as an eyelash. It was almost invisible now that he was acting all calm and polite, but there was no mistaking the underlying darkness radiating from him. He cocked his head to the side, revealing the tattoo on his neck and Reid was suddenly glad it wasn't him in there who had to bear those eyes on his skin.
Of all the UnSubs they encountered on a daily basis, those who smiled were usually the worst.
Reid's eyes flickered from Gecko to Morgan who was visibly getting annoyed by the prisoner's attitude and unexpected refusal to cooperate. Of course, Morgan would rather be mad than scared. He wasn't a blinker.
Right then, Morgan looked like he was about to say something harsh, abandoning false politesse, when Elle answered in his stead.
"Yes, we were," she said, her gaze just as cold as her opponents.
There was no proof Seth Gecko had harmed the victims in any way but she regarded him like he still had their blood on his hands.
Elle pushed the crime scene photos across the table, unable to hide her contempt for him.
Gecko overlooked them briefly without so much as batting an eyelash, then he shrugged, "Sorry to disappoint you. I haven't seen Richie in over a year."
"We know you haven't," Morgan almost growled, sounding acidic in his impatience, "He can hardly take a break from being on the run just to drop by a federal prison. But you haven't answered the question."
"No, I haven't," Gecko smiled with an infuriating calm. He knew they wanted something from him and he was obviously enjoying it immensely.
Reid frowned. Their initial profile was dissolving right before his eyes…
"Listen," Morgan now snapped angrily, "We have proof that he committed those rapes, we have proof that both of you were in physical contact with them before their deaths."
Gecko wasn't overly impressed with Morgan's aggressive alpha attitude. For a moment, his left eye twitched, making it seem like he was angry at the tone, but when he spoke he was in perfect control.
"So what do you need me for?" he asked tauntingly.
Morgan and Elle must be realizing it too by now. If Seth Gecko was indeed involved in the murders, he could in no case be the submissive partner. His whole confidence and demeanor spoke against it. No, he was a leader, an alpha just like Morgan.
Not a great combination with the potential urge to kill.
What it came down to, Reid concluded, was that if they were a team, Richard Gecko would be the one following Seth's orders. Which meant Seth's involvement must be bigger than they thought.
Unfortunately, that meant that the likelihood that they could scare the man into cooperating now was low to zero. All they had left to try was play on his obvious connection to his little brother and hope that that would strike a nerve.
And Elle did just that.
With some effort she let her expression soften and become somewhat concerned, "Seth. If Richard didn't kill those people, then take the heat off of him. Help us find whoever did and help your brother and yourself."
Gecko shot her a look of barely concealed contempt; apparently he didn't like her using his first name - or he realized she was playing him by using it.
Highly perceptive, Reid mentally added to the profile as he listened intently.
"So do I get this right?" he inquired with mock apprehension, "You're saying there is a maniac out there doing this…" He pointed at the pictures in front of him, "And you're either accusing my brother or assuming I know the guy who did it somehow. And based on that you want me to snitch on him?"
He laughed into their faces, leaning forward with gleaming eyes, "And then what? You cut me a deal, I get out and the next thing I know he slits my throat in revenge. Why, no thank you, Agent Morgan. I think I'll just try my luck with the American justice system."
That said, he leaned back in his chair, waiting for them to react. His dark eyes wandered to the mirror wall and met Reid's in a way that didn't feel coincidental though it obviously had to be.
Reid couldn't help but shiver.
What was it about this man? He just kept surprising him. Not just because he'd managed to unsettle and startle him in a way that rarely happened anymore as used as he was to working with murderers.
No, on top of that Seth Gecko was collected, intelligent, eloquent, handsome and most of all ruthless, all going against their initial profile, all indicating sociopathy.
They would have to reevaluate their whole profile.
And that meant: There was no point in trying to bribe or scare this man.
Apparently Morgan realized that as well, because he got up and started putting away the photographs wordlessly, not even sparing the man another glance.
Elle got up as well, looking down on the convict disdainfully.
"Sorry I couldn't help you," Gecko told her amiably, knowing full well how infuriating that was to her.
"Oh, don't worry," Elle replied coldly as she followed Morgan out of the room, "We will find your brother and then you'll wish you had helped the both of you when you had the chance."
She clearly didn't expect him to answer but turned to face him when he did.
"If you find Richie, you'll wish you had run while you had the chance, sugar," he said lowly, for once letting the darkness behind his eyes come forth just by a bit.
One didn't need to spend years in Elle´s line of work to get the implication.
For a moment she looked like she wanted to spit in his face, but then she merely walked out the door after Morgan, letting the lock snap in loudly behind her.
The flight home was mostly silent. There was no bickering, no light conversations, just tense silence with the occasional remark about the case thrown in.
It was hard to tell whose mood was worse, Elle's or Morgan's.
Finally, Reid took heart and began setting up a renewed profile out loud in case someone wanted to participle after all instead of sulking.
"Alright, so we were wrong to assume that Richard Gecko was the one in charge. It makes sense, too, in the way that Seth Gecko is much more collected and cool headed. If he is one of our killers, I would say he shoots the people. He is ruthless, but not compulsive in the way that would make him repeatedly stab someone: He barely looked at the victims' pictures. He didn't seem appalled which suggests a lack of empathy but it wasn't like he couldn't take his eyes off them."
The other two nodded and he continued, "If Richard is the one stabbing the victims, that makes him very compulsive, disorganized and deranged; someone who wouldn't be able to hide his murders skillfully over the course of years. It could mean that he is spiraling out of control now that his brother isn't guiding and looking out for him anymore."
"So why haven't we found him yet?" Elle asked moodily.
"I don't know," Reid admitted, "But I believe Hotch is right to think he might come to his brother's hearing."
"So we will see more of Seth Gecko. Charming," Morgan grunted, before focusing on Reid, "What was that by the way when you left the room? Did you say somehting to him? He was staring at you."
Reid shrugged, trying to seem unbothered even though he had just been thinking about the same thing, "No, I didnt. I have no idea what that was."
Both Morgan and Elle looked at him with an expression somewhere between displeased and worried, but neither of them pushed the subject. After all, it had just been a weird occurence and none of them wanted to keep thinking about Seth Gecko any longer than nessecary. They had no idea that he would give them a lot to think about all too soon.
Seth Gecko was deep in thought as he was led back to his cell.
So a special unit was on to Richie now. If only they knew how easy it would be to get to Richie, how soon they would see so much more of him...
But these people that had come here hadn't been very special in his eyes...they hadn't even been particularly smart. The muscular black guy had been too full of testosteron to really pay attention to his answers, the darkhaired woman too busy despising him to see the truth behind all these cases. If the rest of the team was like that they wouldn't have any trouble, he knew, no need to waste any more thoughts on them.
What had made him pause though was the third one, the young man who had left the room just as he arrived. He'd barely gotten a look of his face, but it had been long enough to break his concentration for a split second. Gorgeous hazel eyes had met his for just a second, distracting him. Pretty boy...
In consequence, he'd found himself surprisingly and dangerously distracted during the interview; his thoughts had kept going back to that brief moment of passing, caught up on it somehow. Initially, he had assumed it was attraction, misplaced yes, inconvienient at the moment, definitely -but understandable...the boy had been just his type and he was going through a bit of a dry spell here.
But now back in the cell, in the dark, alone with nothing but his thoughts, it suddenly seemed like there was more to the feeling.
Hadn't he looked familiar? No, how would he? The team had flown in from Virginia while Seth had never seen more than a few bars and the prison of the state he was currently in. He was rather proud of not associating with anyone in law enforcement. And yes, that kid had seemed too young, too easily scared to be an agent too, but he had to be connected to them in some way. So why would he be familiar?
Still, the question kept bothering him, those eyes remaining on his mind.
In the early hours of the morning, he finally pushed it aside forcefully. Why was he even so bothered? He had more important things to deal with. It wouldn't be long now till the breakout, and those agents wouldn't know what hit them. Coming face to face with Richie alone would certainly not turn out well for them, but once he was out as well, they would bring hell down on those feds' heads. Each and everyone of them would feel their wrath if they dared cross them.
So that boy had better not be one of them, because in Richie and Seth's world, having pretty eyes was by far not enough to escape harm. In fact, in regards to Richard, it was actually more of a high risk factor...
Seth shook his head harshly as he felt an unexpected and certainly unwelcome pinch of unease at the thought, the inevitable mental image of Richie, eyes burning madly and drenched in blood, emanating a darkness that scared even him sometimes.
In his year in prison, that reality had been far away, but soon they would be reunited again, and he already knew that it would take all of his strength and skill to keep them both free and alive -only if he still had time left he could try maybe to minimize the trail of blood they left in their wake, the amount of lives that would fall prey to Richard's madness.
Chances were he'd try and fail, like always when it came to Richard. It was something he'd just had to come to terms with. It wasn't perfect, no, but in the end, if it came down to the two of them versus the rest of the world, he would always chose the former, no messy how dirty he'd have to get his hands in the process.
Sorry if you don't like this version. I just always felt there was a lack of reasoning as to why Seth was so attached to Reid in the origional story, and well, here it is. I like it better, so bear with me, ok?
